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After suffering for too long with a decade old Sony soundbar, and my wife complaining that I played the TV too loud while I still struggled to make out dialogue, I decided to upgrade my home theater sound. Unfortunately for my budget, my research led me through better soundbars, to the best soundbars, to entry level AVRs and modestly priced speakers, to where I am now after hitting the buy button on an RXV-2085. Being completely undecided on what speakers would work best, I figured the extra power of this Yamaha would give me more options than the Pioneer LX303 that was half the price.
My TV is in an 18x28 finished walkout basement with 8' ceilings. The TV is on the 18' wall with the stairs, the main listening postion is a couch about 9 feet from the tv, close to the center of the room. The couch is flanked by two chairs. Behind the couch is a dining room/gaming table and my sons computer desk. Upstairs, I already have a Yamaha stereo receiver with Polk Monitor ii 70s and a Cadence CSX-12 subwoofer in the living room and Pioneer FS52 speakers on zone 2 in the dining room. The subwoofer has seemed like overkill for music (metal, rock, folk). I found I liked the Polks much better than the Pioneer speakers for music. The Yamaha will be used 60% tv streamed through a Roku, 35% movies, also mostly streamed, and maybe 5% music.
Following the advice I have seen here, I made a point of visiting a Magnolia room. I auditioned Martin Logan Motion 40s, Definitive Technology 9040s, and Elac Debut towers. I was not impressed with the Elac Debuts, was pretty favorable to the Martin Logans, and was most impressed with the Definitive Technology speakers. The thing that most impressed me with the Deftechs was the wide sound stage (i think this is the right term), in fact, i thought they sounded best as a 2.0 system without a center speaker.
So I am looking for suggestions for speakers for home theater that I should compare to either the ML or Deftech speakers. I am more than willing to repurpose the subwoofer and a set of speakers from upstairs as well. I am interested in an Atmos system, but willing to start with a 3.1 and build from there too. I am currently considering these options:
1) Repurpose the FS52 and Cadence SW and add the atmos enabled BS-22A bookshelves for surrounds and the atmos top speaker for the towers. Negatives: the center speaker in this line seems to be poorly regarded. I have not been impressed with the speakers for music, they seem muffled compared to the Polks, and I don't know that I would like them any better for home cinema. But this would be a cheaper option.
2) There is currently a 5.0 Jamo 807 set on sale for $299 plus shipping. They look sharp and based on pricing for just the two towers, this seems like a steal. There is also a dedicated atmos add on speaker for the towers. Jamo reviews are pretty thin on the ground though, and I have no idea how these sound compared to other speakers. I would add my existing sub to this set.
3) Emotiva appears to be clearing out their speakers and the T1 and T2 towers seem to get excellent reviews. Since these also use a ribbon tweeter, it seems more likely they would be similar to the ML motion series. I could afford the T1 towers, C1 center, and drop in my existing subwoofer, surrounds and Atmos would have to be added later.
4) Just buy the Deftech 9040s. I don't know if they even need a subwoofer, but I would probably skip the center channel to start with.
From my reading, I am guessing I must prefer a brighter sound, based on the speakers I like? A wide soundstage and vocal clarity would be two important factors for me. The system will mostly be listened to at moderate volumes, so speakers that don't need to go loud to have good presence would be great. I already blew most of my budget on the AVR, and I would prefer to keep the initial speaker purchase below $800 (obviously, the deftechs would exceed that). Getting a full 5.1.4 system would be my ultimate plan, but my time in the Magnolia Room convinced me a 3.0 or even 2.0 system could be a huge improvement in immersion.
I have learned a lot searching through the archive here, thank you for any input or advice you might have on this.
My TV is in an 18x28 finished walkout basement with 8' ceilings. The TV is on the 18' wall with the stairs, the main listening postion is a couch about 9 feet from the tv, close to the center of the room. The couch is flanked by two chairs. Behind the couch is a dining room/gaming table and my sons computer desk. Upstairs, I already have a Yamaha stereo receiver with Polk Monitor ii 70s and a Cadence CSX-12 subwoofer in the living room and Pioneer FS52 speakers on zone 2 in the dining room. The subwoofer has seemed like overkill for music (metal, rock, folk). I found I liked the Polks much better than the Pioneer speakers for music. The Yamaha will be used 60% tv streamed through a Roku, 35% movies, also mostly streamed, and maybe 5% music.
Following the advice I have seen here, I made a point of visiting a Magnolia room. I auditioned Martin Logan Motion 40s, Definitive Technology 9040s, and Elac Debut towers. I was not impressed with the Elac Debuts, was pretty favorable to the Martin Logans, and was most impressed with the Definitive Technology speakers. The thing that most impressed me with the Deftechs was the wide sound stage (i think this is the right term), in fact, i thought they sounded best as a 2.0 system without a center speaker.
So I am looking for suggestions for speakers for home theater that I should compare to either the ML or Deftech speakers. I am more than willing to repurpose the subwoofer and a set of speakers from upstairs as well. I am interested in an Atmos system, but willing to start with a 3.1 and build from there too. I am currently considering these options:
1) Repurpose the FS52 and Cadence SW and add the atmos enabled BS-22A bookshelves for surrounds and the atmos top speaker for the towers. Negatives: the center speaker in this line seems to be poorly regarded. I have not been impressed with the speakers for music, they seem muffled compared to the Polks, and I don't know that I would like them any better for home cinema. But this would be a cheaper option.
2) There is currently a 5.0 Jamo 807 set on sale for $299 plus shipping. They look sharp and based on pricing for just the two towers, this seems like a steal. There is also a dedicated atmos add on speaker for the towers. Jamo reviews are pretty thin on the ground though, and I have no idea how these sound compared to other speakers. I would add my existing sub to this set.
3) Emotiva appears to be clearing out their speakers and the T1 and T2 towers seem to get excellent reviews. Since these also use a ribbon tweeter, it seems more likely they would be similar to the ML motion series. I could afford the T1 towers, C1 center, and drop in my existing subwoofer, surrounds and Atmos would have to be added later.
4) Just buy the Deftech 9040s. I don't know if they even need a subwoofer, but I would probably skip the center channel to start with.
From my reading, I am guessing I must prefer a brighter sound, based on the speakers I like? A wide soundstage and vocal clarity would be two important factors for me. The system will mostly be listened to at moderate volumes, so speakers that don't need to go loud to have good presence would be great. I already blew most of my budget on the AVR, and I would prefer to keep the initial speaker purchase below $800 (obviously, the deftechs would exceed that). Getting a full 5.1.4 system would be my ultimate plan, but my time in the Magnolia Room convinced me a 3.0 or even 2.0 system could be a huge improvement in immersion.
I have learned a lot searching through the archive here, thank you for any input or advice you might have on this.
